Battle

I have nothing against statics, save I am not interested in them other than as a source of a future rebuild-to-flying project. Obviously I am not talking about the BIG aeroplanes rather the smaller end of the market.

I think you need to understand that to rebuild an aeroplane from a pile of junk to a a flyable aeroplane takes years and costs A$100,000’s.

To overhaul a Gipsy Queen engine is likely to cost over A$50,000.

Thus if you are going to go to all that effort, then you might-as-well rebuild it to flying.

As an example think of the aeroplanes that used to be on poles at the front of RAAF bases and the like that have been taken down and are now rebuilt to flying.

Matt is a mate of mine and I first visited his parents house in the 1970’s when as you say he was going to rebuild the Boomerang to static. We managed to show him that he could do it to flying. In the 1970’s in Australia there was an attitude that old aeroplanes shouldn’t fly, so to rebuild an old aeroplane to flying was seen as near impossible (circa 1975) by the late 1970’s that attitude had changed thanks largely to groups like the SAAA-VAS, QVAG and AAAA.

As an example my Tiger moth had never been on the civil register and when I purchased it I was told by many “You won’t be able to register it!” by 1982 it was on the register, no problems.
cheers
Ross